I never seem to have enough mint when I need it. Well that's not strictly true. I often have lots of peppermint, which is great for tea but not so good for cooking. The garden mint seems to die off earlier and come back slower than the other varieties. Last year I put a pot in the polytunnel and it stayed green throughout the winter, although didn't put on much growth. I picked a few leaves every week or so but it was never enough to grab a good handful.

This year I'm determined things will be different! I've been propagating it like mad. I've been cutting small sections of the fleshy rhizomes from the polytunnel plant which have small roots coming off them. I have probably potted up a dozen or so. Any I don't use I can hopefully put towards the Salisbury Transition City stall at the forthcoming Fisherton Festival. I'm not sure how small a section they will grow from. I suspect it only needs a node with roots on but I've tried a few different lengths to be on the safe side.

With lots of things to be potted up I've been starting to run short of plant pots. I have been collecting lots of different shaped plastic pots from the kitchen to make use of which is helping. I've also been experimenting with repurposing and reshaping plastic milk bottles using a heat gun and a metal plant pot to act as a former. It worked out quite well and I can get a couple of pots from a 1 litre bottle. I had been trying to find an instruction video online but couldn't so I had a go at making one. It was a bit of a novelty talking to the camera but hopefully it's clear enough:. See what you think:

Those milk bottles come in very handy. With a family of 5 we get through a load of them. Chopping the bottom off can be a pot and the top can be either a closh or we use it to sink into a tomato pot to aid watering. It fills up, releases water slower and gets the water down to the roots without making the stem of the plant wet.

Propagating mint is also on my todo list but I'll just take a spade to the clump of mint and split it and replant 1/2 elsewhere. We have never found mint to be that successful in pots, probably because it exhausts its food supply and we didn't repot or feed.

We were lucky with pots, our neighbour brought round hundreds for us last year, big, small etc but your idea looks very good. Better than just chopping the bottom off because the shape will allow them to be stacked and stored away.

Hi Andy, it's amazing what you can use them for isn't it. I like your tomato watering idea. That's neat. I was thinking about having a go with larger 2 litre ones too for bigger pots.

I don't think the mint I've had in a pot overwinter has really thrived. Maybe I need to feed it too. The pots quickly fill up with roots too. I'm hoping to sell a few of the young plants on a stall soon so many of the pots are for that.

It's great to have a big supply of pots. I've got loads but not of the right size at the moment so it's handy to have some smaller ones.

That's very smart! I love finding new ways to repurpose, as I believe is not only friendly for our pockets, but for nature as well. Thanks for sharing, now I know what I'll do next with my spare bottles!

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A blog following the development of a small edible forest garden in Salisbury, Wiltshire, first planted in winter 2008.